From our “older than most of our readers but someone just posted it on the internet so we have to watch it” files comes this footage of legendary actor Robert De Niro auditioning for a role in the original Godfather film before he was even famous.

Thanks to our friends at NextMovie for digging this up this gold off of youtube!

So what do you think? Do you prefer James Caan in the role of the eldest Corleone son? We know that De Niro was cast instead as the younger version of Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando in the original, in The Godfather-Part 2 and that led him to Oscar glory. How might the movies have changed if he was cast as Sonny?